Perhaps the greatest area of ferment and change with respect to labor law is in state and local government. The introduction of limited collective bargaining rights in the federal sector forced a reevaluation of labor policy in many states and municipalities.
Currently 40 states allow some type of collective bargaining among public employees and about 36 states have fairly comprehensive statutes dealing with public sector employee relations. Among these are 22 states which provide for ‘broad-scale’ bargaining in wages, hours and other conditions of employment which are subject to negotiation. A small number of states require only that agency heads ‘meet and confer’ with union officials - bargaining however is not permitted. Only 11 states allow public employees to strike and those usually specify rather limited circumstances.
